Once I finally got around to playing Darksiders just this year, I happily realised that it was the game that could fill that Zelda slot. Having never been a Nintendo fan in any capacity, my ability to experience the gameplay that so many adore from that series was non-existent. Darksiders then went ahead and stole the mould from the virtual Nintendo office and threw a bunch of demons inside – which is exactly the kind of change a man like me goes for. Demons make everything better, right? As does the apocalypse. Despite my appreciation for the first game, Darksiders II wasn’t really on my radar until the final weeks leading to its release. I can safely say that if it isn’t on your radar by now, you need to make it so like Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Darksiders II isn’t a continuation of the story from the first game, as it runs concurrently with the events of the first game. Any worries one has about having not played the first game and going into the sequel blind can lay those concerns to rest, as knowledge of the previous game is merely a boon and is not essential to the experience. That said, Darksiders II’s story isn’t particularly deep to begin with. There isn’t much to get your head around besides the fact that humanity has been wiped out by the apocalypse and your brother War has pretty much been blamed for the whole thing. As Death, fellow horseman of the apocalypse to War, you wish to clear his name by any means necessary. So long as you can remember that as well as a few names and places here and there, Darksiders II’s narrative won’t pass you by. That said, playing as Death certainly is a real hoot. Being a horseman of the apocalypse called ‘Death’ definitely brings a level of malevolence rarely seen in today’s protagonists, but he isn’t portrayed in a typically villain-esque evil way as you might expect. Sure, he reaps souls and slays thousands on a daily basis with his twin scythes, but he is trying to bring redemption to War after all. You’ll also never see him cackling maniacally amongst the corpses of his fallen enemies either, instead focusing on the task at hand and ensuring that both friend and foe get to the point as quickly as possible – even if it does mean throwing a scythe at them from time to time. His journey to redeem War does hit a few snags along the way, but ultimately, this is the main thread throughout the story. Characters both old and new are both seen and referenced, and whilst you do return to Earth for a short period of time, all of the environments you’ll discover as the Pale Rider are brand new and offer a fresh look into the universe of Darksiders. Some of it is a little cliché with skull-socketed doorways, eerie whispered cries sweeping through stone-clad corridors and green flames aplenty, but…
